Week 6 of the NFL season was a bit of a bummer. A third of the way through the season, it’s inevitable that injuries will rear their ugly head, but it feels like the football gods really do not want us to have nice things in 2025.

Here’s an incomplete list of the stars we’ve lost along the way, including several high-profile players that went down in Week 6. Take a deep breath: George Kittle, Brock Purdy, Fred Warner, Nick Bosa, Brandon Aiyuk, Ricky Pearsall (yes, I’m aware these are all San Francisco players), Joe Burrow, Malik Nabers, Charavarius Ward, Tyreek Hill, Puka Nacua, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Emeka Egbuka (now it’s the Bucs’ turn), Jalen Carter, Omarion Hampton, Najee Harris, Lamar Jackson, Marlon Humphrey, Ronnie Stanley, Roquan Smith, Nmadi Madubuike (oof, tough to be a Ravens fans right now) and Ceedee Lamb.

For all that woe, a number of players have provided us with enough entertainment for an enjoyable slate of Sunday games. Let’s dive into the exploits of Justin Herbert, Baker Mayfield and a scorned Rico Dowdle to take the bad taste out of our mouths. Unfortunately, we do also have to reflect on the abomination of a game we saw at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium…

WEEK 6 SCORES

(excl. Monday 13th October)

Thursday

Philadelphia Eagles 17 @ New York Giants 34

Sunday:

Denver Broncos 13 @ New York Jets 11 (London)

Seattle Seahawks 20 @ Jacksonville Jaguars 12

Los Angeles Chargers 29 @ Miami Dolphins 27

Los Angeles Rams 17 @ Baltimore Ravens 3

Arizona Cardinals 27 @ Indianapolis Colts 31

Dallas Cowboys 27 @ Carolina Panthers 30

New England Patriots 25 @ New Orleans Saints 19

Cleveland Browns 9 @ Pittsburgh Steelers 23

Tennessee Titans 10 @ Las Vegas Raiders 20

San Francisco 19 @ Tampa Buccaneers 30

Cincinnati Bengals 18 @ Green Bay Packers 27

Detroit Lions 17 @ Kansas City Chiefs 30

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GAME OF THE WEEK

Los Angeles Chargers 29 @ Miami Dolphins 27

Inside every man, there are two wolves.

Greg Roman’s dominant lupine is a rabid monster thirsty for punishing run-first offense. It doesn’t matter to that wolf that the Chargers are carrying a ridiculously banged-up offensive line and are without their two starting-calibre running backs in Omarion Hampton and Najee Harris. Even with Hassan Haskins and Kimani Vidal toting the rock, Roman dialled up a run-heavy gameplan against the Dolphins; understandable given Miami’s inability to stop Rico Dowdle last week (more on him later – Ed).

Once Roman quashed his fetish for stodgy two-yard gains, he called 13 straight pass plays that unlocked Justin Herbert, pushing the Chargers towards a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter.

The Dolphins stuck around, weathering that onslaught to take the lead with less than a minute remaining in the game as Tua Tagavailoa found Darren Waller for a seven-yard score. That, however, only set Herbert up for a spectacular drive-extending play that somehow saw him turn an almost-certain Jaelen Phillips sack into a 42-yard gain to Ladd McConkey.

Cameron Dicker’s chip-shot field goal secured the 18th game-winning drive of his quarterback’s career, the second highest mark since he entered the league in 2020.

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MVP OF THE WEEK

Baker Mayfield (QB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers)

Should this be MVP of the season through six weeks?

The former first overall pick had led four last-minute comebacks through his first five games of the season and, this week, produced a standout play, converting a seemingly busted 3rd-and-14 dropback by escaping two clear shots at a sack, before lunging past the marker with two 49ers draped on his back. Next Gen Stats calculated he had just a four percent chance of converting for a first down on the play.

Despite a sleepy start to the Bucs’ 30-19 win over the injury-ridden Niners, Mayfield was dealing in the second half. He connected on 12 of his 14 passes to receivers with less than three yards of separation, accounting for 215 yards and two touchdowns on such plays. That illustrates how well Mayfield played without Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Emeka Egbuka; the rookie standout having exited the game in the second quarter with a hamstring injury.

With improved accuracy, bona fide last-minute chops and an indefatigable attitude, Mayfield has established himself as a true threat for the NFL’s most prestigious individual award come season’s end.

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Winner: Rico Dowdle

Rico Dowdle called his shot.

The former Cowboy did not shy away from the narrative in the build-up to Carolina’s tilt with Dallas, leaning into the idea that this presented an opportunity for revenge against the team that sent him packing in the off-season. “They got to buckle up,” said the sixth-year running back in the build-up to the weekend.

It would appear the Cowboys failed to put their seatbelt on.

Dowdle gashed his former team for 234 yards from scrimmage on 34 touches, leading the Panthers both in rushing and receiving yards. It is the second straight week that the career back-up has eclipsed 200 yards from scrimmage; there has only been one other such performance in the NFL through six weeks of the 2025 season. He is the first player to achieve the feat since 2014, when Le’Veon Bell did it with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Thanks to Dowdle’s breakout campaign, a steady performance from Bryce Young and the Cowboys inability to mount a comeback drive (their final possession resulted in a loss of 12 yards thanks to some baffling playcalls) the Panthers now sit at 3-3, with a fair shake of post-season play despite a faltering start to the season. Can they remedy their woes outside of Charlotte when they travel to New York to take on the winless Jets in Week 7?

Loser: UK football fans

The International Series has been a resounding success for British gridiron fans. We’ve been party to 40-plus regular season games, witnessing the growth of our Sunday pastime from a fringe pursuit to a mainstream fixture on the sporting calendar. For that, we can only call ourselves winners.

But. But. But.

The Jets and Broncos delivered an all-time stinker at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday. Both sides served up a slurry of poor game management, questionable offensive gameplans and truly baffling situational decisions.

Let’s start with the Broncos, who punted seven times on Sunday. Bo Nix went the entire third quarter without generating a passing yard. After fashioning two brilliant come-from-behind drives against the Eagles, populated by bubble screens, quick hitters and inside zone runs, Sean Payton seemingly eschewed that mantra, instead dialling up long-developing plays that failed to capitalise on Nix’s strengths in a maddening sequence of stodgy offensive output.

The Jets were several deviations worse. Somehow. Justin Fields was sacked nine times. His -0.71 EPA per dropback and 13.8 percent success rate rightly garnered questions over his tenure as the franchise’s starting quarterback going forward. Aaron Glenn did his best Matt Eberflus impression, failing to get a play into his quarterback on a fourth down with the seconds dwindling in the first half, leaving Gang Green unable to launch a Hail Mary. That decision brought visible frustration out of Garrett Wilson, who seems cursed to live the Larry Fitzgerald existence of godawful quarterback play for the bulk of his career.

It’s an indictment on the quality of play that arguably the largest cheer of the day came when Giggs brought out JME for his half-time performance.

THE ROUND UP

Reports of Kansas City’s demise were wildly exaggerated. In the past three weeks, Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes have eclipsed 28 points each game. Their 30-17 win over the Lions was a statement for a team, and an offense, that suddenly feels fun to watch again. The return of Rashee Rice next week should only accelerate their output.

Drake Maye followed his breakout win over Josh Allen and the Bills with another complete performance in New Orleans. The second-year signal caller threw for 261 yards and three scores, completing 69 percent of his passes. He leads the NFL in success rate, and is carrying an offense that offers little on the ground. The Pats are dead last in EPA per run.

Puka Nacua exiting the game in the second quarter of the Rams 17-3 win over the moribund Baltimore Ravens made all RedZone watchers catch their breath. The third-year star returned to the game but was a bit-part player. Keep an eye on the news of his ankle injury ahead of the Rams’ trip to London next week.

 

Aaron Rodgers looks to be assimilating perfectly into Arthur Smith’s offense. Having diced the Vikings in the short game in Dublin, and perhaps playing with the Browns expectations in the 23-9 win, Rodgers and Smith mixed in five completions of more than 20 yards, including a 36-yard gain to Darnell Washington on the first play from scrimmage, and a 25-yard touchdown on the right sideline to D.K. Metcalf. Pittsburgh are sitting pretty atop the AFC North at 4-1.

Mike MacDonald’s defense did the heavy lifting in Seattle’s 20-12 win in Jacksonville. The Seahawks were without Riq Woolen, Devon Witherspoon and Julian Love in their secondary, leaving the donkey work to their defensive line. Rather than dialling up additional pressure (the Seahawks blitzed on just 14 percent of Trevor Lawrence’s dropbacks), MacDonald favoured a four-man rush with plenty of disguised looks on the back end. That still resulted in Trevor Lawrence facing pressure on 46 percent of called pass plays, as he held on to the ball for 3.2 seconds per throw.

Cincinnati’s sensational inter-division trade for Joe Flacco appeared to be a damp squib as the Bengals failed to move the ball in a frustrating first half in Green Bay. However, the 40-year-old came out swinging in the second half, finishing with a respectable stat line of 29 completions from 45 attempts, resulting in 219 yards and two scores. While it was too late to overturn their deficit, the former Super Bowl MVP’s arm strength paired with Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins should make this offense watchable again.

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STATS OF THE WEEK

• It’s that man Dowdle again. His 239 scrimmage yards are the most by a player in a game versus a former team in NFL history.
• A quick nod to Thursday night, when Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo both ran for a score in the G-Men’s upset win over the ailing Eagles. The last time the Giants had two rookies with one or more rushing touchdowns in a game came in 1980, in a Week 10 win against Dallas. Larry Heater and Leon Perry crossed the whitewash on that day.

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